Friday, January 23, 2015

5. The Wabbit and the Offshore Unit

The Wabbit and Lapinette ditched their jeep and ran along the riverbank with the Ball in close pursuit. The Wabbit seemed to have a clue about the Ball but his plan came to a halt when he decided to hop onto a maintenance barge. The Ball made heavy weather of the water as had been expected and its muffled roar turned into a waterlogged creaking, but it drew close enough and started to pulse. Lapinette shook a control unit. "This ship will never sail." "It's not a ship as such," retorted the Wabbit, rattling the door handle. "It's a Mobile Offshore Unit." By this time, the Wabbit knew he had made two erroneous assumptions: the first was that he could start the unit and the second that he could sail it. He was just about to move to Plan B, when he heard familiar voices. "Commander! Marchesa!" Tipsy pulled out the automatic she'd borrowed from the Wabbit's secret dump and fired a warning shot at the Ball. But the recoil spring jammed and Tipsy hurled a stream of invective that curled the Wabbit's fur. Now the Ball was stationary but its green glow pulsed steadily. Lapinette stared at it and nudged the Wabbit. "Who's inside the Ball?" The Wabbit thought of a list of enemies then shook his head. "Anyone's guess." Lapinette took over. "Tipsy," she yelled. "Take the truck and get Panico." It was the Wabbit's turn to stare. Lapinette shrugged. "Panico's the biggest friend we have." The Wabbit looked sceptical. "But he's terrified of Tipsy." "We all are," smiled Lapinette.

They take refuge in the rail station but an equally angry group of strawberries confronts them. They insist tomatoes are only masquerading as real fruit. But when the tomatoes turn up accusing the strawberries of being imposters, an ugly brawl looks likely. To broker a peace, the Wabbit and Lapinette suggest an independent arbiter.

The Alien Pilot tries to act as a conciliator. He agrees to decide the botanical status of both strawberries and tomatoes - and regales the strawberries with a story of similar events on his planet. The strawberries agree to be part of the conciliation process. However, the tomatoes are hostile and make trouble. Lapinette forcibly persuades them to agree - at the point of an automatic.

The conciliation meeting assembles but is noisily interrupted by the Zucchini Liberation Front, which insists on fruit status. A recess is called and they retire to a quiet spot where a new group appears – the seedless grapes. The grapes complain bitterly of the giant corporations who rendered them seedless. So they’re programmed for conciliation too!

But on their way home, Lapinette, the Wabbit and the Alien Pilot are followed by a group of cherries. To their surprise, the cherries want nothing at all.Because of this, they’re invited to help in the conciliation process.

Selecting an impressive venue they meet in the Dark Basement of the Goddesses, supervised by Goddess Unut herself.The cherries adjudicated and gave their final botanical determination. Seeds should be ignored ... it’s better to be stoned.

All about the Wabbit Adventures

Follow the Wabbit is a long running story blog now well over 1250 episodes. Commander Wabbit is a Secret Agent loosely attached to the Department of Wabbit Affairs in Turin, Italy. He works with a team of amazing pals who are animals but also pirates, dragons and androids.

Each adventure is separated by an episode set in an Adventure Caffè. That's how you find an adventure in the archives. Use the search box to find Adventure or Caffè. Do cut and paste because of the Italian accent in Caffè. An exciting story has just ended ...and another is starting!

The Adventures are photo collage and text. But everything in the picture is a photograph. Characters and creatures are made from collage material of all sorts, then photographed and cut out. The background photograph is their stage and they are very particular about how it looks.

The Wabbit and Lovely Lapinette adventures are written by Coinneach Shanks. Photographs are by Coinneach Shanks unless otherwise attributed at the bottom of the page. Permissions for photo use may be granted on application and is available at low cost to autism charities and animal welfare organisations. Commander Wabbit himself may be reached at followthewabbit@gmail.com - Or on 00 86 8395914 He's really most approachable and always looking for new ideas!

Facebook Badge

Follow the Wabbit on Twitter

Followers

Coinneach Shanks

Coinneach Shanks is the creator of the Wabbit Adventures. Stories, photographs, photo-collage, character development, story-lining and creature animation. Coinneach and Camilla Galli da Bino designed the Skarrots, the Food Dragon, the Puppet Government, Moloch, the Swarm and the Light Creatures. Coinneach Shanks designed Rabbit Jenny the Pirate, the Normots and Panico. All material is copyright. Permissions for use may be addressed to shanks.coinneach@gmail.com

Art Wabbit

By Amadeüs & Pluis

Clari Csuk

Clari Csuk is the illustrator of the original Wabbit, Lovely Lapinette and Skratch the Cat Burglar graphics. Also the Wabbit's sometime adversaries, the Ice Mice, The Skuttles and the Euls.

Psychotherapy in Dublin

Blog Hints

The Autism Blogs Directory

Attributions

Fiat Campagnola (jeep) images are by kind permission of Maurizio Boi at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mauboi/ The Balloon Adventure from 08-01-12 These images are otherwise all rights reserved.

The background graphics in ""The Wabbit takes a Quantum Leap" (24-11-11) and "The Wabbit takes the Scenic Route Home," (27-11-11) are courtesy of NASA and are understood to be images in the public domain.

The cover thumbnail in The Wabbit and the Secret Garden (07-12-11) is understood to be fairly used and may be purchased from.

The Merlin helicopter and Type 45 Destroyer published in post 11th April 2014, is courtesy of the UK Ministry of Defence under the Open Government Licence. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/2/